By Will Sturgeon, 30 January 2007 13:10
NEWS
silicon.com is today launching its 'Fair Wi-fi' campaign to highlight the problem of rip-off prices for internet access at hotels and to push for a number of key improvements for business travellers.
The business community is becoming increasingly mobile and the requirement for always-on connectivity has never been greater. Yet hotels seem intent on fleecing guests rather than trying to service this demand in a way that would breed loyalty among important customers.
With its Fair Wi-fi campaign silicon.com is looking to...
♦ Raise awareness of the problem of hotels overcharging
♦ Inform the hotel industry about the strength of public opinion opposed to excessive charging
♦ Encourage hotels to be more open about their charges and better inform consumers
♦ Publicise user demand for wi-fi access
♦ Provide expert opinion and highlight best practice where hotels have shown it is possible to offer reliable and cost-effective wi-fi services
♦ Enable consumers to make more informed decisions about where they stay
Business travellers are being treated as cash cows, and businesses, end users and politicians are backing silicon.com's call for change. Our goals are highlighted in the box (right) where we have outlined what 'Fair Wi-fi' is all about.
Lending his support to the campaign, David Laurie, CEO of internet service provider Madasafish, said: "As the cost of broadband continues to fall, it seems hotels within the UK are determined to maximise profit rather than permit guests to benefit from improvements in cost, accessibility, speed and connectivity."
Andy Pepper, director of business information systems at Tetley Group, told silicon.com hotels should provide wi-fi as a basic utility. "I would like to think wi-fi could be treated the same as hot water and heating," he said.
Nigel Wallbridge, chairman of Nomad Digital, said: "Hotels are missing a trick with their wi-fi offerings. Most still treat wi-fi as an extra revenue service like laundry or an airport shuttle rather than using it as a marketing tool to differentiate themselves from the competition.
Wallbridge said: "Unoccupied rooms cost a lot more than free or discounted wi-fi access, yet very few hotels in Europe, unlike North America, are currently considering this as a way to get more guests through the door.
"It's time the hotel industry changed its attitude to offering internet access."
Bob Vickers, UK General Manager at Aruba, said: "We live in a society where gaining access to information while on the move is key and a sensible tariff structure for wireless access is important - particularly when looking at positioning the UK at the forefront of an ever evolving mobile market."
Grant Shapps, Conservative Party MP, said: "The cost of a high-speed internet connection is one of the factors that helps business people decide where to do business and hotels that still charge big numbers for short periods of time online are damaging their own best interests long-term."
The issue isn't just about pushing for free wi-fi but rather we are also trying to encourage hotels to rethink their pricing policies.
Ben Booth, CTO of market research company Ipsos, said: "Maybe a modest fee is fair but personally I would not pay more than £5 per night."
Yet we know from our own research some hotels are charging as much as a £50 flat-rate, while others charge guests £20 per hour.
We say it is time for a change and we need your support. Please take a minute to sign our petition.
Comments
There are 13 comments. Join the discussion
1. Ralph Pruitt
The only way to lower these high charges is to vote with our feet. It will only be the impact on the hotels bottom-line that will effect a change.
2. Mark Hosey
Sorry guys, I can't sign your petition.
I'll accept that a number of hotels are overcharging but if you don't like it don't stay there! Hotels offer a number of "pay for" service which require their time to administer and hardware to pay for. I don't think it's unfair to charge a fair price for this additional service which not all patrons will use. For this reason I would not like to see the standard rate of a hotel room rise across the board just so a few well paid self centred meanies can log on for free. Anyway, if business users really need access put the cost on your expense account and get your company to pay the bill.
If however you believe there is some sort of collusion in price fixing that's another matter that should be dealt with by the appropriate authorities.
3. anonymous
I travel a lot internationally, and the differences in WiFi access are amazing. Frequently there are free services available if one searches. In San Juan there was a very good free town network, yet the hotel was charging to use their network. In Geneva the hotel Wifi was free in the lobby, but charged for in the room. In Stockholm my Hotel Wifi was free, but the LAN connection was charged for. It all indicates that hotels have not got around to thinking this through. Wifi is an essential service these days, and one expects it to be treated the same as breakfast - ie either included, or the price declared up front. Similarly the quality of the connection is a complete unknown. I recall paying 10$ a day in Beijing for a connection which frequently dropped into the bits/sec and I had to resort to using the phone for a dialup connection!
4. anonymous
Oh the 'Need' for information.
How about this for a novel solution - get the information before you travel, and get a mobile that you can use for checking your corporate e-mail, then you have no need for overpriced services!
5. Simon
One factor I don't recall having been discussed is what some hotels (like one near to me) are to do. I suspect a lot of them have simply outsourced the whose thing to one of the big operators doing corporate/hospitality network systems - and I also suspect that because of this they are constrained by what the provider tells them to do.
From my experience running an event at a local hotel, the managers knowledge stopped at the 'it involves these little red cards with codes on them' stage - he clearly knew nothing beyond selling these access cards.
6. Rory Choudhuri
Until the situation improves, you can check out the service from connect.ipass.com
The company I work for provides this to all travellers and it seems to work well.
7. Bob Watt
One other trick hotels would like to play in this area is to block mobile phone access on their premises, thus obliging residents to use their internal networks.
Note the hotel group interest a while back, when someone claimed to have developed a jammer gizmo for mobiles.
Very relevant to your campaign, and also very probably illegal under Uk telecoms regs.
8. anonymous
Having spent 6 months travelling around most of Europe and UK I try to book hotels with free access either wired or wireless.
Normal minimum charge appears to be £15 for 24 hours, but I can only use it for a max of one or two hours per day.
9. Ian Savell
Market Forces will sort this out
As others have said, if free wifi access is important to you use a hotel that provides it. If it isn't, use any hotel. Legislation or its close cousin regulation would be a waste of resources and ultimately increase prices for all.
This is just another example of the "something must be done" society we are creating for ourselves. Yes something must be done, but by US not THEM!
10. Leslie Stump
Couple of points.
The hotel chain Malmaison do not charge for Wireless internet access.
Look into the exhibition venue ExCel and see how much they charge exhibition organisors for Wireless access, it is truly outrageous.
11. Colin OKeefe
The figures quoted for some hotels seem cheap when compared to the rates demanded by Cruise operators on their ships. Even if you provide your own wifi enabled hardware they still screw you until the pips pop.
12. anonymous
There are costs to the Hotelier, who owns & operates the system. Also if the system is free the costs increase as the bandwidth has to be increased. In London, to provide a 100mb link, (for decent speed if all of your customers are on the system at once) is around £700 per month. Hoteliers often pay another company to provide tech support to there customers, as the Hotel staff will not have detailed knowledge of the system. I know some people will know how to use the system but would it be fair to charge more for tech support to those who dont know on top of a daily fee?
13. Brian Catt
Magnificent, but pointless. Get real Ed.
Wi Fi rates in Hotels will change when GPRS is undercutting their WiFi and the Hotel's WiFI revenues drop off. Not before. S'obvious.
Its like asking the Mountain bar at Courchevel to reduce the price of a cold Erdinger from £7.50 - "it is the cost of getting it up the Mountain, Monsieur" - and the Summer off in St Maxime as the overhead. Or why the French have Nuclear power. Pas de choix.
Hotels have gouged customers for comms and other services for ever. Its what they do, with a grovelling smile and while expecting a tip. They have telephone services business managers, this business can exceed the profit on the room rate which is almost a loss leader for the overpriced restaurant, bar and communications services. Calls all go through private switches which rack up the rate, no national PTT dial tones here.
Remember those telephone bills abroad which exceeded the room charge for a 30 min internationall call? Or the nicely varnished call boxes in main post offices you paid the operator to use to call England from Europe for you? That was why Telegrams, the SMS of their time (no, nothing is new and SMS was obvious to anyone who understood bandwidth loadings of different traffic).
When you have a monopoly you don't lower prices.
This finally happened in Hotels when Mobiles provided an alternative so terrestrial hotel phone rates are now down - to Mobile levels! Still hugely profitable and no reason to go lower.
Even when there is oligopoly you don't initiate price reductions, ask the oil companies. Duh!
You have to be forced by economic sanctions, the only effective ones against a business.
You now have a choice for Data. If you just want a quick look at your mail headers and web site you can now connect GPRS mobile, but that's not cheap and its per MB - £3 per MB in my case, or £1 per MB if I buy 5MB Boltons every month. 5 Megaboltons (my unit) for £5 - In the UK. Overseas roaming data is somewhat more!
The WiFi "rip-off" soon looks cheap.
BTW if you get all you can eat with WiFi and intend to do a lot of mail and web browsing its probably better to stump up the £10 and know that's it. That way you can make all your international calls on Skype or enterprise VoIP service then log onto your favourite Internet porn or gambling sites cheaper than the Hotels rip off TV porn, get onto your meaningful blogs while watching the porn if you are a journalist - and it won't be on your bill.
Not a bad deal. Think laterally.
Brian